ACT Math : ACT Math

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ACT Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #4 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

What is the range of the trigonometric function defined by ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of a sine or cosine function spans from the negative amplitude to the positive amplitutde. The amplutide is given by  in the equation . Thus the range for our function is 

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

What is the range of the given trigonometric equation:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

For the sine and cosine funcitons, the range is equal to the negative amplitude to the positive amplitude.

The amplitude is found by taking  from the general equation: 

.

We see in our equation that 

(when no coefficient is written, it is a 1).

Thus we get that the amplitude is 

Example Question #6 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

What is the range of the function ?

Possible Answers:

There is no valid range for this equation.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

However, in this case our final answer is increased by  after the cosine is applied to . This results in a final range of  to  (or, in other words,  to , plus ).

So, our final range is .

Example Question #7 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

What is the range of the function ?

Possible Answers:

There is no range that fits this equation.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

However, in this case our final answer is multiplied by -3 after the cosine is applied to . This results in a final range of  to  (or, in other words,  to , multiplied by ).

So, our final range is .

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

What is the range of the function ?

Possible Answers:

There is no range that fits this function.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

However, in this case our final answer is first multiplied by , then decreased by  after the cosine is applied to . Multiplying the initial  range by  results in a new range of . Next, subtracting  from this range gives us a new range of .

Note that the  does not change our range. This is because, irrespective of other multipliers, a cosine operation can only return values between  and . To think of this a different way,  will give us the same returns as , only we will move around the unit circle five times as much before finding our answer.

Thus, our final range is .

Example Question #151 : Trigonometry

Which of the following functions has a range of ?

Possible Answers:

None of these have the specified range.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where  represents the vertical shift, .

In this case, since our range is , we expect our  to be .

Of the answer choices, only  has , so we know this is our correct choice.

Example Question #10 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

Which of the following functions has a range of ?

Possible Answers:

None of these formulas has the specified range.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where  represents the vertical shift, .

In this case, since our range is , we expect our  to be .

Of the answer choices, only  has , so we know this is our correct choice.

Example Question #11 : How To Find The Range Of The Cosine

Which of the following functions has a range of ?

Possible Answers:

None of these functions has the specified range.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of the function represents the spread of possible answers you can get for , given all values of . In this case, the ordinary range for a cosine function is , since the largest value that cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values), and the smallest value cosine can solve to is  (for a cosine of  or a multiple of one of those values).

One fast way to match a range to a function is to look for the function which has a vertical shift equal to the mean of the range values. In other words, for the standard trigonometric function , where  represents the vertical shift, .

In this case, since our range is , we expect our  to be .

Of the answer choices, only  has , so we know this is our correct choice.

Example Question #3061 : Act Math

Which of the following represents a cosine function with a range of  to ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The range of a cosine wave is altered by the coefficient placed in front of the base equation. So, if you have , this means that the highest point on the wave will be at  and the lowest at ; however, if you then begin to shift the equation vertically by adding values, as in, , then you need to account for said shift.  This would make the minimum value to be  and the maximum value to be .

For our question, the range of values covers . This range is accomplished by having either  or  as your coefficient. ( merely flips the equation over the -axis. The range "spread" remains the same.)  We need to make the upper value to be  instead of . To do this, you will need to add , or , to . This requires an upward shift of . An example of performing a shift like this is:

Among the possible answers, the one that works is:

The  parameter does not matter, as it only alters the frequency of the function.

Example Question #1 : How To Find Negative Cosine

If  and , what is the value of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Based on this data, we can make a little triangle that looks like:

Rt1

This is because .

Now, this means that  must equal .  (Recall that the cosine function is negative in the second quadrant.) Now, we are looking for:

 or .  This is the cosine of a reference angle of:

Looking at our little triangle above, we can see that the cosine of  is .

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